By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, August 9th
August 9, 1929: Palisade Avenue’s Phillip Gray, acting on a dare from friend John Kennedy of Elm Street, walked through Getty Square in his blue V-neck pajamas! Not only did he attract crowds strolling down Elm Street to the Square escorted by “bet official referee” Jack Barden and bet maker Kennedy, Gray occasionally stopped to pose for a photographer. Gray ended the walk with a smile and $25 richer. Later asked if he was embarrassed, Gray answered, “I was cool and collected!”
August 9, 1940: Yonkers authorities realized many fewer Yonkers residents were swimming at Sandy Beach below Ludlow Street. Because of freighters moored in the river, the beach and water in the small cove were cluttered with driftwood, debris and oil slicks from the ships. Instead, swimmers were using a small beach 100 yards south; a few adventurous boys even had erected a diving board on nearby rocks!
River swimming continued to be popular, even though the Yonkers Health Department issued annual warnings to stay out of the river because of its pollution.
Tuesday, August 10th
August 10, 1942: After the 12th vote count, Democrat Thomas Sheridan finally emerged as the winner of the Common Council seat formerly held by Al Richter sworn in as a Naval officer in Washington on July 31st. At the time, Yonkers used proportional voting, now called ranked voting, a system allowing voters to rank candidates in order of their preference, thus requiring multiple vote counts.
August 10, 1952: After getting a request from the Yonkers Water Bureau, the New York State Conservation Department began investigating the large numbers of eels and perch dying in the Saw Mill River. Since the Saw Mill was one of our water sources, Yonkers temporarily cut off accessing the river.
Wednesday, August 11th
August 11, 1928: City Engineer Chris Sheridan announced Yonkers would have to revise its plans to install a sewer on Yonkers Avenue. The sewer, to stretch from Alida Street to the Tibbetts Brook Valley, would have to be much bigger and much more expensive. Why? Someone discovered the new Yonkers Zoning Laws created an apartment zone in that very area!
August 11, 1947: Otis escalators went to sea! The escalators were installed in the SS Niew Amsterdam, the first ship to have escalators. The ship’s waiters used them to bring food and tableware from the kitchen to the ship’s dining rooms.
Escalators were catching on; in the same announcement Otis announced they had installed escalators in the Wabash Railroad Station in St. Louis, and 80 more in various department stores the first half of the year. By the end of 1947, they had installed a total of six hundred in buildings, convention halls, hotels, stadiums, theaters and other train stations.
Thursday, August 12th
August 12, 1943: Members of Yonkers’ Local 188 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners happily contributed to the Yonkers movement to send cigarettes to the “boys in the armed forces.” Recording Secretary James Airlie proudly announced they heard from one of their union members serving overseas; he wrote, “Puffing a cigarette from the home front, I feel a strong unity, one that forecasts victory in the near future.”
August 12, 1952: Yonkers Red Cross First Aid Vice Chairman Abel Gorfain used his skills to help four victims of a car accident! Gorfain, who always had first aid equipment in the car, just in case, came on a two-car accident in the Bronx; he immediately treated four victims for shock, put compression bandages on lacerations, and made splints and slings for the three victims who had fractures. When the ambulance arrived, the staff just had to bring the victims to the hospital!
Friday August 13th
August 13, 1918: Four boys had an interesting explanation for Judge William Bleakley as to why they were arrested sneaking into School 18. They claimed they were “just playing a game,” a game that required them to climb two stories up the front of the building, and then force the window open.
August 13, 1945: Bennett Avenue’s John Sheils, First Sergeant with the 69th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, was awarded the Bronze Star for his “meritorious support of combat operations in Italy, France and Germany, January 1, 1944 to April 15, 1945.”
August 13, 1955: The wooden Indian, an institution standing outside of Friedman’s
Tobacconist shop on Palisade Avenue for 70 years, had to be removed. Vandals not only broke off the statue’s right arm, they ran off with it!
Saturday, August 14th
August 14, 1932: The newly refurbished City Recreation Pier reopened with a new roof, new flooring on the second level, new railings, and a new paint job!
August 14, 1947: Two city judges, Charles Boote and Martin Fay, met with Deputy Public Safety Commissioner William Comey to ask for “stiffer penalties” for convicted gamblers in Yonkers.
August 14, 1947: Kingston Avenue’s Colonel John Hart Allen, on duty in Germany with the US Army, received the Polish Order Medal to thank him for recovering Polish property.
Sunday, August 15th
August 15, 1940: The Yonkers Common Council officially created the post of Honorary Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, and asked City Manager Raymond Whitney to appoint Major Edward Bowes, and authorized Whitney to present the new Deputy Commissioner a gold badge. As soon as it passed, a certified copy was sent to Major Bowes, along with dozens of telegrams and messages from Yonkers organizations and officials. Why the honor? The Bowes National Amateur Hour was saluting Yonkers that evening. Several Yonkers performers were still in the running, and prominent Yonkers officials and businessmen were guests in the studio during the show.
August 15, 1945: President Harry Truman appointed St. Mary’s graduate Colonel Gerald Brophy of Bronxville Road as the US Representative to the International Civil Aviation Council; forty-four countries attended the Council’s first meeting in Montreal. Brophy previously served as Chief of the International Branch of the US Army Armed Forces, in charge of Lend-Lease. A lawyer with Chadbourne, Wallace, Parke and Whiteside, his specialty was air transportation and aviation manufacture.
Questions or comments? Email YonkersHistory1646@gmail.com.
For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and upcoming events, please visit our website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email yhsociety@aol.com.
